Tombrobber
by Ryua Malfoy
Summary: Everyone thinks the Pharaoh is the one true ruler, and that he should be put on the throne at all costs. Now, you can see my part of the story... why I still oppose his rise to power after all this time.
1. Waiting

Someday, I will own something of great value. This will not be Yu-Gi-Oh, as it belongs to Konami, or something.

Waiting

Sometimes, I wonder why I bothered opting for immortality.

I mean, it's been four thousand years since my mortal body was preserved, lying deep in the desert sands, turned to dust itself.

And I was born a thousand years after the Pharaoh's death.

Maybe he's just given up.

Maybe I'll be stuck, on the chest of this sarcophagus, accompanied by four dismally boring items for the rest of eternity.

Even the Pharaoh's puzzle hasn't shifted since the birth of the Christian god, two millennia ago. And that was barely a shudder.

I wish I hadn't listened to the brethren...

"_A time will come, far, far in the future, farther than we can imagine. The reign of Pharaohs, kings, self-styled divine rulers of all kinds will end. The world will be free, the people their own beings, and it will be good. And, one of our kings, one of those believed to be gods, will be awoken, and will try to make the world a slave again. Our cause, and it is a great one, is to prevent this. Our purpose is to keep the world free..."_

Oh, yes, they were wonderfully persuasive. Young and foolish, and down on my luck, though full of talent, I thought I had found a reason for my existence.

I had been a tombrobber.

The best in Upper Egypt.

That is, until I got caught. My wrist was branded with my first mark of a thief, and I was cast into the desert, to survive among my kin.

Cutthroats, thieves... and very, very few of them had any sense of honor or mercy. I had gathered together the best I could find, had organized my own band, and we were notorious along the Nile. Unfortunately, I was notorious in the underground as well.

By sixteen, I had already had four different attempts on my life, none of which came very close to succeeding. Partially, this was because of my reputation. If I, the golden boy of the thieves' guild, was harmed in any way, it would be terrible to pay the blood price from my band.

However, now that I had been caught... I could just scratch that invulnerability. I had been marked as weak, foolish, easy enough prey for the royal guard to catch.

Not a good situation.

I did manage to steal a water skin, and some flatbread from a camp. Stupid from dehydration, however, I left my tracks clear as day across the sentry line. I barely got out alive.

You can have no idea how demeaning those next few weeks were. I had been the elite, a prince in my own right, respected and admired. Now, I did nothing but filch scraps and rags, creeping like a rat through other robbers' little kingdoms.

Until I met the brethren.

I had just slipped into another camp, having remastered the art of moving in shadows, like a shadow myself, leaving no tracks to be seen, when much to my surprise, I was hailed. Since that first night, I had not been seen, not the ripple of my cloak, not the moon shining in my silver hair... and now, someone was talking to me as if I had just walked right into the mess tent at midday.

"You are late."

Normally, I would have pulled a dagger, and been away before the first drop of lifeblood stained the sand. But the sheer strangeness and audacity of the statement made me pause. And when I turned, I saw a round, cheerful looking fellow not ten feet away, with curling brown hair and eyes that looked to belong on an innocent two year old. Not someone who should have been able to see me, much less get that close to me. "What do you want?"

"I said, you are late. If you wish for something better than dog scraps for a meal, come join our fire."

"Do you honestly think I'm that naïve? To walk alone into a camp full of unknown travelers armed with Ra knows what?"

To my utter disgust, he laughed. "If we wanted you dead, I could have killed you instead of opening my mouth. Come, have something to eat."

He had a point.

And, I hadn't eaten a decent meal for at least a month.

So, I came to eat at the fire of a group that simply was called the brethren of life. There were every imaginable type of human there, from the normal, scarred vagabonds and assassins you would expect in the desert, to escaped slaves, priests, a handful of people dressed far to well to be anything but nobility, people with skin black as night sky, and those the color of rich cream. And, Ra strike me if I lie, women.

Women who wore whatever clothing they wished, and carried blades, staffs, and wands as easily as the men they sat beside. Never before had I seen such a dense number of free women in one place. In my band of thirty, I'd had two, and they had to fight among the men to be treated as equals.

And they talked.

They talked of freedom, of rights, of a time in the future where everyone could be equal. Their seers had foreseen it, praying priests confirmed it... the slaves believed it with every scrap of their scarred souls. I didn't let myself be swayed that night, or so I thought. I just allowed myself to stay for one more good meal before I left for the desert night again.

Three full moons later, I was a full member. I had always believed that the rule of the Pharaohs were too restrictive, hence my occupation. Now, I found a group that lived as I did, not because they couldn't do anything else, but because they believed the same. So I listened. And learned.

They taught me to read the pictographs written on the temples, the ones I hadn't puzzled out from my years spent in the tombs. And I learned to speak the strange languages of the pale-skinned travelers from far north, and the brush-written language of the Easterlings, and the many, many varieties spoken by the night-dark people.

I learned of the gods, of the many, many disused deities of my people, the nature spirits, the peaceful, perfection seeking monk of the East, trifold mother of the north... there were a very many of them.

And then, there was the thousand-years-forgotten art of Shadow Games. One of the priests, who had served in the darkest of the tombs, had come across a chamber, sealed with stone and curse. This was what I was needed for, what they thought I was late for. I knew how to get into any tomb, to bypass nearly any curse.

It took me, the priest, and three different monks to break through the curse. Someone really didn't want us in there.

Too bad.

The chamber rose far over our heads, farther than should have been possible. The walls were covered in stories and pictures of battles, fought between priests and strange beasts. At the far end, was a tablet that rose high above our heads, and the hall was flanked with tablets engraved with the pictures of the same creatures in the stories on the walls.

Three years later, we had truly mastered the art of the Shadow Games. It was the eve of my nineteenth Nile Flood, and I was celebrating with the rest of my age group our ascention into adulthood. I was just starting to convince a rather lovely archer with pale gold hair to go for a little walk when the priest who had discovered the Games took me aside.

I wish now that I had just gone for the walk.

He had discovered a last panel in the tomb. And it finally explained the strange staff and necklace worn by the Pharaoh and High Priest on the master tablet. They were two of a set of seven, called Millennium Items. These items, along with three monster tablets not kept in the main chamber, were guarded by a certain family, sworn to protect the Pharaoh's legacy. And then he told me that the spirit of the Pharaoh was sealed in his item, a deceptively simple pyramid puzzle, to be revived when the world needed his iron fist again.

My job was to find those items. And take one.

I really wish I'd gone for the walk.

But no, I packed up that night and left for the nearest city to the tombs, to ask around. Weeks later, I was out walking the streets, and saw someone I didn't recognize. Now, for me, three weeks in a city is enough to at least see the faces of people, if not know their lives. So, I followed this person. He was wearing a simple white robe and turban, and made no effort to hide his tracks. Once we got outside the city walls, however, my vision blurred slightly, as if my eyes wanted to pull away from him.

It was one of the easiest mastered Shadow tricks. I'd found them. Once I knew what was going on, it was child's play to see through the glamour, and follow him. He led me down into a ruined city, hidden surprisingly well in a pile of rocks, and went through a door.

Normally, I raid at night. I'm most at home then, and can slip into the shadows. In this case, my target was quite as nocturnal as I. I would wait for midday.

It came, clear and bright as any Egyptian day. I gathered wisps of my own Shadow spell around me, to encourage sleep and peace, and I marveled at how much easier it seemed here.

I crept past the man I'd seen earlier, sleeping peacefully with one arm around what must be his wife and newborn babe. There was an older child in the next room, but no items to be seen. Since the house was not much bigger than those rooms, I was starting to get a little frustrated. Finally, I decided to sit down in the middle of the small kitchen, and risk a scrying spell. I sent out as low a frequency of Shadow Magic as possible, knowing these people would be sensitive to it. Immediately, I felt a sealed door, next to the chimney.

A simple push of my magic opened the portal, and I saw a sarcophagus, inlaid with five glistening gold Items. I knew I wanted the Rod. It was the opposing Item to the Pharaoh's puzzle, the logical one for the brethren of life to use.

Unfortunately, it wasn't there. Neither was the necklace, its empty slot laced above the Puzzle and Ring. So, I took my time, looking over them. The Eye, for seeing thoughts, among other things. The Scales, for containing and balancing raw power, the Key, for working through or creating any spell, any lock, any protection ever invented. I knew the Puzzle would shatter when removed from its slot, and its powers weren't for my use anyway. I'd become what we were trying to prevent.

My fingers were just sliding up to the Ring, when I heard footsteps behind me. I whirled, automatically sliding the Ring inside my sleeve to see the man standing there, Rod pointed directly at my head. There was Shadow Magic starting to gather at the tip, and I didn't even think for a second. I threw my hand up, creating a shield.

To my great surprise, it didn't dissipate with the blast. It didn't even reflect it. It completely absorbed it, not even rippling. _Excellent._ I gestured, and a spell-binding circle wove into existence, trapping his arms to his sides. Elated, I left, and summoned a niwatori to cross to the brethren.

For a long six months, we fought and won battles against the monarchy. We got overconfident.

One night, our entire camp was besieged by Shadow monsters, from the air, ground, even the oasis beside us. We fought, for a while, but it soon became obvious that we were up against at least two other Items, with well-trained wielders. And then, that same man, the guardian of the items appeared. Just appeared, right in front me. He said, "Deliver the Millennium Ring, and we will allow the rest of you to go free."

And it was suddenly quiet. The monsters withdrew, just enough to see the decimation of our group. Our Shadow monsters were flicking in and out of existence, and there were far, far to many bodies lying still on the ground. We had never dueled to kill before, and it was obvious who was on the losing side.

The senior members of the brethren, which was basically everyone left alive and with a soul, drew without a sound to me. The Ring, which I was eternally grateful had been under my robes, shimmered into view. "They want it," I said.

"We can't just give it up to them..."

"We've risked so much..."

"Lost so much...

"And we'll lose everything we have left if we don't!" I snarled, cutting through the tired protests.

"There might be one thing we can do..." said the priest. Funny, he was the one who sealed my fate, and yet I cannot remember his name. And full of righteous anger, frustration, and desperation, we agreed to do that which had been done once before. By a full circle of fully trained priests, with all the items to back them up, of course. They sealed my soul into the Ring.

The Pharaoh got to sleep until his time arrived. We didn't do so good a job. And so, four millennia later, I'm waiting here, waiting for something, anything to happen, to wake the Pharaoh, to find the chamber, to start Armageddon, anything.

And then, I sense movement, scratching in the catacombs around me.

Author's Note: It's my first time writing anything other than a Harry Potter fic. It'll get better in the later chapters, of course, now that most of the background is out of the way.


	2. Foiled

I own my deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

Foiled

As I listened to the unmistakeable sounds of life invading a place of the dead, as I grew impatient in this tiny, miniscule fraction of my life, my mind drifted back through the ages.

The man who delivered the ultimatum to my clan, the guardian of the Pharaoh's power, I later learned, was named Ishtar. I also saw in his mind that his family had been living down here for five centuries now, put in place after a grand-scale sweep of the Tombs of Egypt. Through the years, they'd been brought up to think that they had no choice but to protect their Pharaoh, that it was their solomn duty, their reason for existence. Pathetic. These fools lived under the sands for their entire lives, serving someone who would probably never return.

Of course, this comes from a man who sealed himself in a Millenium Item to guard _against_ the return of the same someone.

The man was a hero, among his family. There were three children, a grandmother, and his own wife, of course. He was worshipped for fighting down the terrible rebellion and restoring the Ring to the tomb of the Pharaoh. They were so thrilled, in fact, that they decreed that their family would forever be known as Ishtar.

That name, the foolish ingrained duty to protect the Pharaoh, and the purple eyes that cropped up every few generations were passed down, down, down the line until present day.

Once, there was actually a difference in this. One of the children, more sensible than the rest, but still outside my range of manipulation, left. Just up and left, on the eve he was supposed to take the Rod. The family cursed him for it, a really nasty one. "If you leave this building, if you renounce your duty to your Pharaoh, you, and all your descendants to the end of your line, will forever be tortured with visions of what you should have been, and never be able to reclaim your power..." Or something like that. It was two centuries ago, give me a break.

Interestingly enough, apparently one of these descendants got tired of being tortured with visions of what his great-and so on-grandsire should have done. One night, a man walked into the tombs, and knocked upon the Ishtar door. The wife was fast asleep, three months pregnant with her daughter (I checked. I was bored.) but the husband woke immediately.

"I am Shadi," said the intruder, "I am here to pay repentance for the disservice my forefather did to yours."

Now, a record of this little happening had been told to every child in the household, to scare them into obedience. Now, this particular Ishtar happened to be a sympathetic soul. He actually let Shadi pay repentance.

By handing over two Items. Neither of which was mine, by the way. I was just a bit furious. Shadi was given the Key and Scales, and told to watch the flow of magics in the world. I'd felt it too, just the barest stirrings of magic left dormant for millennia.

And what did this Shadi do?

He brought in another person, to donate an Item to.

This didn't work out very well, as he seemed bound and determined to hand out the eye, and it was extremely picky about whose head it sat in. After three dozen, I'd thought he'd give up.

But no... he found an outlander, some rich archaeologist, here looking for a way to restore the dead. Touching.

I reached for him, as he came in, thinking that a man soaked in grief would be all to glad to accept my help. What I didn't expect was for Shadi to have meddled around and given him a ray of hope.

I hate that emotion sometimes. It makes it so hard to take over a mind.

And sure enough, Maximillian Pegasus got the eye. And he saw his beloved Cecelia, immediately, without any training whatsoever. This, of course, put him so high into elation that I would never have been able to touch him in a thousand years. I almost did, when he realized he couldn't touch her, and crashed back down to depression. But then, his busy little mind started working away at some way to use magic to bring her fully back... If only he hadn't been quite so absorbed, he would have heard me offering to help...

Well, I'll just have to get out another way.

Although I did like his idea of gathering all the Items. If I could get them all, their magics are designed to cancel each other out. Once the magic was neutralized, however temporary... well, gold is one of the easiest metals to melt and reform, isn't it? If I can destroy the Items while they're not tied to the Shadow Realm, that will solve my problem of how to prevent the Pharaoh's return nicely.

The real trick, is getting the Puzzle. Naturally, being the Pharaoh's signature item, it can cancel most of the Items on its own. I have to get them all, or at least the other six. If not, that dratted Puzzle will just mess it up.

Author's Note: Wow, a reviewer already. Thanks Savari!


	3. Foiled Again

I own my deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

Foiled Again

I traveled along the walls of the tombs, knowing as if it were my own flesh they were burrowing into where they were. A few dozen, most native Egyptians, but a handful from the North and East, the first people that had found my catacombs in centuries. I'd felt people before, robbers like myself, scholars from distant lands... but they had all stayed tantalizingly just out of my reach. And of course, Maximillian Pegasus, whom Shadi had brought himself. These were well within my influence, so I reached out to start prodding them in my direction.

This was much harder than it should have been. Since the last time I'd found a host, tales of the evil spirit vengefully guarding the mystical items of the kings of old had been blown way out of proportion. At the first touch of my mind, they fled gibbering in panic. Not exactly useful to me, I needed someone who was curious enough to come looking deeper in, to come save me from my own insanity.

There. A mind, old enough to be considred wise by his comerades, young enough at heart to have the curiosity and trust of a boy. It was easy to gently prod him down cooridors, to excite his curiosity. He knew I was down here, or at least knew there was something, and he ran right towards me, rather than away as so many did.

I heard his comerades call out, asking where he was going. He didn't even need my prompting to bring more people down, to quicken his pace. "Solomon, where are you... slow down a moment, would you?"

He called out some vague answer, turning a bend that brought him into my true area. _So close, so close..._Past the room with the tablets and Shadow Game rules, past the little hidden door leading to the Ishtar home, and just one level to go before my chamber proper...

When _he_ stepped out of the shadows. Not of the direct line of the Ishtar family, charged for so long with guarding the items, but a distant cousin. He was summoned here, by one of the unclaimed items, the Key. And frustratingly enough, once he had his Item, I wasn't powerful enough without a body of my own to influence him to pick me up as well. So Shadi hovered around the temple, sometimes there, sometimes not, and always right where I didn't need him.

Like right now. Solomon Motou ran headlong into him and fell backwards, mere steps from finding the sarcophagus. And then, just to add to my frustration, the puzzle sitting just above me melted away, summoned by Shadi into a box to hold the myriad pieces I knew it broke into. Sure enough, he handed it over to the wide-eyed man who came so close to being my savior. And he left.

One of his companions came barreling around the corner. "Solomon, what in the world are you doing?" he panted.

"I was just talking to..." he began, gesturing, then he noticed that Shadi had melted away again. "That's odd..."

"I think you'd best get back up to the camp, old friend."

I'm ashamed to admit it now, but I threw a bit of a temper tantrum.

I caved in a whole section of the catacombs, trapping the two of them. It would have been useful if, say, the only open way was back towards me. But no, I had to overreact and trap them in a disused corner of the Shadow Games rooms.

They found the inscriptions, of course, as any bored person would do, and being archaeologists, they managed to decipher part of them. Enough, in fact, that they came very close to guessing the nature of the original Games. And of course, they realized the link between Pegasus' cards and the carvings on the wall.

It was entertaining to watch the duel the played, if much less impressive than it would have been in my day. Enlightening, too, for I knew if I ever did manage to get out of here, I would have to learn the rules of today's Games. I watched both their strategies, and picked both brains for bits of rules, although I doubt they noticed anything. In a place like Japan, there is much less regard for the old magics than there was once.

I did reach up above the ground, as difficult as that was, and pulled at one of the other archaeologists once I'd seen the duel completed. I wasn't about to let them die of thirst just because I lost my temper.


	4. At Last

I own my deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

At Last

The group of archaeologists left, much to my disappointment. It may have had something to do with the fact that I'd sort of accidentally sealed off almost all of the access at that end of the tombs.

Not too long later, I discovered that that wasn't the only side effect of my temper.

There was a hole to the surface. The Ishtars were crawling around, searching for such holes, but they were on the other side of a large rock fall from it. It would take them days to reach it. With luck, someone would notice the large cloud of dust, and explore closely enough to find the crack. Someone small enough to fit…

Days passed, and they were dangerously close to my part of the catacombs.

And finally, for the first time in centuries, some luck came my way. In the form of the youngest daughter in a family of sons, searching for a place to hide for a game. And, because being the youngest, smallest, and only girl, she got picked on a little. Maybe not so little. From the little bits and pieces floating innocently on top of her mind, I found that even I thought them cruel. _Perfect_.

She didn't even need any prompting to find the crack. I made sure it was stable, then lightly encouraged her to come deeper. _This girl is painfully lonely._ She felt my presence in her mind the moment she reached the hallway of the catacombs, and eagerly searched me out. I could have been anything, anyone. A vengeful spirit, leftover Shadow summoning, or something more mundane, like a pimp or pedophile. Somehow, I doubt those had changed much over the years.

Luckily for her, I wasn't anything of the kind. Well, maybe I was a vengeful spirit, but not towards innocent children. Just the Pharaoh. –Hello,- I said.

"Hello," she replied in a quiet, sweet voice. "What's your name?"

_My name…_ It had been a very long time since I'd had cause to think of it. –My name is Bakhra.-

"Bakura? That's a funny name." Hmm, interesting. Apparently a language shift had occurred since I last spoke out loud. I don't remember using that particular letter. "Why can't I see you?"

-I can be invisible when I want to. In fact, I usually am. I'll try and show you who I am, I've been invisible a long time and I've forgotten how to be seen.-

She giggled. "That's funny. I don't know anyone who's invisible."

-Well, now you do.- It really had been a long time since I'd tried to manifest a visible form, and it took a fair bit of energy to maintain one. I concentrated now, on what my face looked like, the shade of my eyes and hair… and I settled on basic, shapeless Bedouin robes. A lot easier that trying something more complex or fitted. –Can you see me yet?-

"Yep! Why do you have white hair? My grandpa has white hair. Are you somebody's grandpa?"

"Slow down," I laughed, using an audible voice for the first time in millennia past. "I don't have any grandchildren, or children at all. I'm a spirit, and I've been alive a really long time."

"Really? How long?" Her eyes got absolutely gigantic. I was vaguely worried they would fall right out if she opened them anymore.

"You know the pyramids?"

"Yes,"

"I saw the first of them being built." Not entirely right, but close enough for a five year old.

"Oooooh!" I swear she managed to put five full O's in that word.

"So, what's your name?" I could delve into her mind, of course, but it didn't take too much longer to be nice and ask.

"Maya," she said shyly.

"Well, Maya," I said, kneeling, "Do you think you could do me a favor?"

"What's the favor?"

"I need to get to the city. Could you do that?"

"Maybe. We go to the city on rest days. But, why don't you just walk on your own?"

"Well, I don't really have a body of my own. I live in that gold ring," I said, pointing to the Ring, sitting serenely on the sarcophagus.

"You live in a ring?" She almost fell down laughing at that statement.

"Yes, I do. And if you could carry it to the town for me, that would be a big help."

She looked up at the great slab of stone, chewing her lip. "My brothers would try to take it, if it's gold and shiny. Cause, I'm just a little girl. And they're bigger."

"That won't be a problem. I'll make sure they leave you alone, okay?"

"Really?" In all my years on this planet, I don't think I've ever seen anyone so happy. "You could?"

"I most certainly could. Now, see if you can't reach up here and get this necklace down, okay?"

Cheerfully, she skipped into the center of the room and scrambled up onto the dais. For one horrific moment, I thought she wouldn't be able to reach it, then her questing fingertips touched the outermost point. _YES!_

As elated as I was, I was very, very cautious as I entered her mind, taking care to only inhabit a tiny portion. ­–Good job! I've been waiting a very long time to find someone to help me out of here. Thank you.-

"So, now you want to get to the city?"

-Yes. As soon as possible. Actually, we had better leave now.- I'd just heard the Ishtars breaking through the rubble. They would be here in less than a half hour.

"Okay!"

Outside, hidden in a little alcove of rocks, Maya used her hair ribbon to put the Ring back on as a necklace. The leather cord I'd used last time I'd found a bearer had long ago disintegrated. She'd just put it on when her brothers finally caught up with her.

"We looked here already!" one of the older ones said, in a whiny voice that I'm sure got him anything he wanted from his father.

"No, I've been right here!"

"It's not like you could tell directions anyway, Kial," the tallest one said, sneering at the first brother. –Ryssa,- Maya told me silently.

"I can too!" Kial pouted, "It's all her fault!"

"Yeah," said a third boy, coming out from behind another pile of rocks. –Bek-

"Why do you always have to mess up our games, Maya?"

"Hey, where did she get that?" Kial said, pointing at my Ring.

"I bet she stole it! I think we ought to teach her a lesson!" Ryssa said, cracking his knuckles. Involuntarily, Maya shrunk back, and squeaked as she came up against her fourth brother. –Tkal!- she mind-shrieked, panicked. Ryssa might have been the ringleader, but Tkal was the biggest. The hands he clamped on Maya's tiny shoulders could have easily encompassed her head.

-My turn,- I said. Kial moved in, hand raised to hit her, when I took over completely. Our head snapped up, and our eyes glowed dark. His fist, which would have hurt such a small person a fair bit, bounced harmlessly off Mirror Force, throwing him back. "You should not pick on your little sister so much, Kial," we said, Maya's small, light voice sounding very odd with my deeper, harsh tones coming through.

Kial obligingly scurried back, looking as if he'd just about stepped on a scorpion. Tkal's hands only tightened of course, and Ryssa stalked forward. "What do you think you're doing, Maya? We're your older brothers, you can't treat us this way!"

"On the contrary, I think I can." We said, looking coolly up at his face. "After all, you've treated me this way for as long as I can remember. But I don't think you will anymore."

Tkal lessened his grip, trembling slightly. Apparently, he had no clue what to do when someone stood up to them. Of course, the fact that we were glowing slightly might have had something to do with it. Now, to make sure they stayed properly cowed. "I found this Ring," Maya said, in her own voice. "And inside is a spirit who happens to like me. So, you aren't going to be mean to me anymore, or he'll be ten times as mean back."

"I… I don't believe you!" Ryssa shouted, as if the louder he said it, the truer it was.

"Really?" we asked, walking forward. I reached out and put our hand on his forehead, quite a stretch, really. And I simply downloaded some… ideas into his mind. Sufficed to say, by the time I finished, he would never touch another girl, child, or just about anyone else again.

Just to finish it off, I took over our voice completely. "Now, I'm going on a journey. But, be sure that if Maya ever needs my help, I will be there in a heartbeat to do whatever she needs. Now," I said, letting a little of the Shadow aura fade and some of Maya come back into our voice, "I'm going to the city. I think it would be best if you didn't tell anyone about our little meeting, hmm?"

A chorus of silent nods followed. Inside our head, Maya did a little happy dance to see her brothers be so obedient. –Are you really gonna come help me if I need you?-

-If I can,- I replied. –I might not be able to though. So, what I'll do, is give you a shield to use. The same one we used on Kial, it's called mirror force. If you're in trouble, just think really hard about the shield, and it'll come. It will also make you look like I'm back in your head, so it'll scare your brothers. Okay?-

-Okay!- came her cheerful reply. Aah, how much I've missed having company.


	5. The City

I own a deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

The City

Maya and her family got me into the city with no problems at all. I'd wanted her brothers to see me, but I could go unnoticed very easily if I had to. To Maya, it was much like I was strolling along the city streets beside her, although it was all in her head, of course. It took a lot of energy to be seen by lots of people, and I was a bit rusty.

Soon enough, her father stopped the little parade at a multi-goods stall. I simply nudged some minds out of the way, so no one would notice or think it odd that a little girl was having a conversation with one of the stall vendors. "Here. This is for you to sell." Maya said, sadly taking my Ring off her hair ribbon. "Make sure someone nice buys him, okay?"

"Of course," the teenage boy behind the table said. He took the Ring from her hands, and traded her a bit of candy. It had to be an actual trade, of course. The candy was so that no one else would notice she had anything, because it would already be eaten. And so Maya passed out of my life.

The boy put me down on the table very quickly, of course, so I didn't have a chance to probe much. Just enough to notice one maddening fact. They sold only resident goods here, food, cloth, and the like. Neither they, nor any of the other vendors he knew sold tourist items. Which meant that I could be waiting a very long time before any foreigner came my way, let alone someone from Japan.

I lost track of the years. The boy always packed me up at the end of the day, unconsciously, and always unloaded me every morning although no buyers noticed me. His father died, and he inherited the stall. He got a wife, and a few children, and still I waited. Once, there was someone from a country I hadn't even known existed, but it had recently been at war with Japan. An American soldier wouldn't have been any use to me whatsoever.

And then one day, there was someone new at the town boundaries, someone who tasted foreign to my mind. And, I recognized the same peculiar, flowing script work in his mind that was in Solomon Motou's. _He's from Japan…_ I thought elatedly. I reached out to pull his mind closer, to guide him to my stall. I was a bit disappointed, he was much more stubborn about magic, and seemed to be an utterly dull individual. But then I saw something that decided me once and for all. His last name, although it held a letter that never existed during my time, was Bakura.

I woke parts of my mind that I hadn't used in far too long. Instead of sliding people's eyes away from me, I had to attract this Bakura's gaze. And make sure that my current owner would sell me for an extremely low price. It took very little prodding. One thing this man knew was the value of gold, and apparently thought the Egyptian selling me was a bit slow. Which wasn't true in the slightest, he just had my considerable influence leaning on his soul to get rid of me. In the end, they settled for three chocolate bars and an extra canteen, and I was in the possession of a new owner.

Not only that, but he was leaving for Japan the next day. We got to Cairo, and were on a flying machine called a plane as soon as I could have wished. I did have a bit of a shock when I was run through a strange metal archway. I was in his bag, since I doubted I could get him to wear jewelry of any sort, and alarms went off as the bag passed through. I picked out an image of what the people were looking for from their minds, and disguised myself as a bag full of Japanese currency. Luckily, they didn't scan me through a second time. I had no idea what the peculiar archway was, or how to fool it.

We got to Japan with a minimum of difficulty, although I was a bit bored. I discovered Bakura to be just as dull as I thought when I poked at his soul. He did some sort of sales work with an average income, had a wife, an average house, no real hobbies or talents, he didn't even care about the Duel Monsters game. Lovely.

What he did have was a son. He couldn't figure out what was wrong with Ryou, just that the boy was always forgetting to do things, and insisted on time to be left alone in his room, listening to music. Music the father hated, no less. And, to my joy, collected Duel Monsters cards. _Ryou…_ he seemed like someone with a life, a little imagination, and the basic skills I needed to do my work, not to mention he seemed a little bit of a free spirit. Hopefully he'd extend that way of thinking to accept my need to abolish the Pharaoh…

Author's Note: Sorry it took so long. I couldn't get time at the computer, because we had guests always in the basement, then I couldn't get to the library because I worked, then my disk had a freak-out and wouldn't upload anything.


	6. Ryou

I own a deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

Ryou

Finally, we drove up to their upper-middle class home, in their upper-middle class car, in a good section of the city, to see his averagely pretty wife open the door to greet her husband. A chaste peck on the cheek, and in we went. Ryou was at school, unfortunately for me, so I stayed in the bottom of the bag, catching just bits of the conversation above me. It was utterly dull, and I only woke up when he said something about unpacking.

My bag was carried down the hall to the master bedroom, and much to my annoyance, I was tossed into a drawer. A drawer full of mystery keys, odd pennies, a truly horrendous tie, old receipts, and other, obviously forgotten items. I'd have to find Ryou, and convince him that it was a good idea to go rummaging through his father's drawers to find something that talked to him in his head.

No problem.

Of course, what I didn't expect was Ryou's single-minded determination to do his homework. He sat right down in the living room and pulled out a set of books. And when he was done that, his mother just had to get something out of her room, and then it was suppertime…

The next week and a half went like this. You'd think that I'd be used to waiting, have good patience by now. I'll tell you this: it's a lot easier to be patient in an empty tomb, than it is to know how close you are to freedom, and yet be unable to bring it about.

So… I lost my patience. I dug through Mrs. Bakura's mind, and pulled up an image of a restaurant she loved. She, of course, kept hinting at her slightly dense husband to take her. Eventually, with a little prodding of my own, he did one night. Leaving Ryou to watch the house. Luckily for me, he wasn't much of a socialite, and decided to spend the evening playing video games in his basement bedroom.

He picked up marvelously fast on my whisperings, looking around the room when I'd barely started. "Hello?" he asked, softly.

-Come here, Ryou,-

He shut off his game and stood up. "Who's there? Where are you?"

-I'm a friend, Ryou. I need your help.-

"What do you mean? I don't know you. Where are you hiding? I'm- I'm warning you, I'm armed!"

I chuckled. He'd picked up one of his mother's exercise weights and was clutching it like he thought it would actually do some good. On second thought, if I'd had a skull, or anything bruiseable, it would probably leave quite a dent. –I'm not here to rob you, or hurt you. Your father brought me back from Egypt.-

"From Egypt? What are you talking about? He came back alone. What am I doing, talking to you… get out of my house!"

-Ryou, you couldn't do me any damage with that …interesting club you have. You'd do better with your dueling deck.- I saw him start to jump to wild conclusions, almost wistfully hoping that I was some kind of magical being connected to duel monsters. Most of the time, that would be just some childish fantasy, to be buried before any laughed at it. But for once in his life… -That's it Ryou, you're starting to think now.-

"What are you talking about?" He kept his fist closed around the weight, sensible boy that he was, but also dropped a hand down to his deck. I could tell from the ache in his soul how much he wished it could be real, how much he wanted me to exist.

-Listen to your heart, Ryou, your soul. They tell you more true than your mind what is out there. You know I'm no human thief or criminal.-

"… I'm… I'm not actually hearing you, am I?" he asked, eyes widening, and his death grip on his weapon loosening.

-No, not with your ears. I'm a spirit, Ryou. I came back with your father from Egypt, and I've been stuck in this stupid drawer since I got here.-

"In… the drawer?" he didn't quite giggle, didn't quite let himself believe me yet. "The one he keeps his awful ties in?"

-Yes, yes, I've been looking at this revolting pile of purple and red checked fabric for a week and a half now, so come get me out!-

To my immense joy, he came slowly up the stairs, turning all the lights on as he went just in case. I felt him come closer, open the door to his parents' room, and stand directly in front of the dresser. His hand came up and rested on the handle… and didn't move.

-Ryou, what are you doing? Open this Ra-damned drawer!-

"This can't be real… Not really. And if it were, it wouldn't happen to my family. We're too normal, too ingrained in today's world," he said bitterly.

But I could feel his soul, feel just how badly he wanted it, needed it, how tired he was of the world as it was. –Ryou, just open the drawer.-

"But as long as I don't open it…" he trailed off, but in his mind finished, _I will always be able to believe it was real._

-But it is real, Ryou.- I said softly, pleadingly, praying to the multitudes of gods I knew that he would believe me.

Apparently, the whole 'reading of minds' trick paid off again. He swallowed, tightened his hold on the handle, and pulled. There was no need to tell him which piece of paraphernalia I was. My solid gold construction alone was enough to draw notice. As his hand picked me up, I could finally see, for the first time since I left Maya. I saw our hand, holding the Ring, a drawer well padded with revolting ties, a strange kind of carpet of an uncanny shade of purple, an odd sock… Our eyes traveled up, seeing a belt, jewelry box, and a pile of papers on top of the dresser, and a _mirror_. I flicked our gaze up the whole way, to see what Ryou actually looked like.

White hair, golden skin, eyes just a shade below chocolate… delicate features, even teeth… I tried to refocus our eyes, not believing what I saw. I did see a few differences, a gentler mouth, softer eyes, a little paler than living under an Egyptian sun had made my skin.

I had never truly believed in reincarnation. And I certainly never believed that I would be reincarnated, since I was still sort of alive. But there was no doubt, that Ryou was my intended host, the one meant to take up my destined role opposing the Pharaoh. This would make locating him easier too, if his destined host was also his look-alike.

-Bakura? Is that really your name?-

-Yes, Ryou. Or at least, this millenium's version of it. You pick this up fast, I'm impressed.-

I felt his slight pleasure at my praise color his soul. –Thank you. I guess… it's because I've always wanted something like this to happen. Deep down, I trained myself… 'what would I do if this happened?' I always thought it was just a childish dream.-

Despite myself, I was starting to get attached to this boy. So sweet and honest, maybe even a bit vulnerable… And yet we were kindered spirits, I had no doubts. Two different people, but with something the same, some basic thing matched with us. –Well, luckily for you, it's not a dream. I'm very real, and so is all my magic.-

-You can do magic?- He sounded so much like a little child seeing his first street musician that I laughed.

-Yes, Ryou. Real magic. For instance… You know what a Kuriboh is, yes?-

-Of course.-

-Then watch.- I held out our hand, and concentrated. A moment passed, a puff of Shadow appeared, and a Kuriboh formed, sitting right in our palm. The next second, I was completely shunted aside in our mind as Ryou squeaked with excitement and petted it. –I'm glad you're so happy.- Oddly enough, I actually was.

-It's so soft, and warm… it's real, isn't it?-

-Yes, real to a point at least. It's created from Shadow matter, which comes from a different realm. I could summon a real one, but it would be a lot more draining, and it would also act like a Kuriboh, multiplying and blowing up at any opportunity. And, it would be real, a living creature enslaved to my will. I don't like doing that unless absolutely necessary.-

-Good. I'd worried about that, you know, because in the stories, the spirit trapped in a magical item for thousands of years is usually pretty…-

-Barbaric and violent?- I filled in.

-You said it, not me.-

I laughed again. Twice in five minutes… I must be getting soft or something. –Well, I don't think I'm barbaric, not compared to some at least. And violence tends to be a waste of energy, and completely blow your cover, too. Imagine if your school mates suddenly saw me mugging a little child, for instance.-

-True.- We walked out of the parents' room, and I was finally able to look around the house. Ryou's mind filled in the rather embarrassingly frequent gaps in my knowledge. Like a TV, radio, stack of CDs, a computer… all things he took for granted, which hadn't even been wild dreams in the minds of my previous hosts. And then, he asked the really dangerous question: –So, what're you doing here?-


	7. Explainations

I own a deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

Explanations

I'm here to… well, stop someone from taking over the world.-

"Taking over the world? Are you serious?" He giggled, going back downstairs. "Sounds like Pinky and the Brain or something…"

Pinky and the brain?- I asked blankly.

He giggled again, supplying an image of a cartoon starring two lab mice trying to take over the world. I was getting more and more in tune with his mind, and so knew what a cartoon and a lab were.

Interesting, but if that were the case I'd just find a housecat and not think any farther on it. No, this is the Pharaoh we're talking about.-

"Pharaoh? As in the ruler of Ancient Egypt… so that would have to mean that he… or she I suppose, is in one of these…"

Millennium Items. Yes. The Pharaoh's item is the Puzzle, and can only be reassembled by his heir. He has been known by many names over the years.-

"Do tell…" Ryou said as he flopped down backwards on his bed.

Well, obviously his title was Pharaoh, and since Pharaoh was also a separate being above us mere humans, it was a name as well. Atem was his given name, although only close family or very close friends could use it. Yami was given as well, as it means darkness, or spirit of darkness. Any spirit of the Shadow Realm inherits that name, however.-

"So you're also called Yami?"

Yes. Technically, _your_ Yami, your dark spirit. You're my host, the light half, called Hikari.-

"So, are all hosts Hikaris then?"

…No.- I couldn't believe what I was doing. Less than fifteen minutes, and I was already bonding to this boy… -You're the first. It takes a very special host, one who is so close to the Yami in spirit and soul that they could almost be one.-

"Huh. You know, I should probably be disturbed by that…"

But you're not, I know. I've read enough philosophy, holy texts, even love stories over my many centuries to know it must be possible, but I never had really believed it.-

"And here we are, simply because my father happened to walk into the town you lived in. Really makes you wonder about fate."

We stared up at his ceiling for a while, looking at posters of music artists, Duel Monsters, movies, Anime shows… Ryou's mind automatically filled in the missing information.

The Pharaoh is here. Somewhere in this very town.-

"Really?" Ryou sat up, as if he were paying more attention. "How do you know?"

A few decades ago… I can't remember exactly how long, my sense of time is a bit dulled, Shadi gave the Pharaoh's Puzzle to a man, a man from this country. I remember the name Domino from his mind now.-

Ryou was picking up information from my mind nearly as easily as I could from his now. Shadi, the chamber holding the Items, all the details became clear. Including…

"Solomon Motou? That funny little man who owns the Duel shop downtown? I go to school with his son!"

An image flashed into my mind, of huge innocent eyes in a child-like face, but the basic structure, the hair, the same feeling surrounded him. –Yes…- I whispered. –That's the Pharaoh's heir.-

"Yugi's never seemed the type for world domination."

And you've never seemed the type for thievery and cold emotions either. And yet, you're my Hikari, all the same.-

"I guess…" I could tell he was troubled. "You… you won't hurt Yugi, will you?"

Only if I have no choice.- I winced at the way he recoiled from the ruthless sound of that. –I am a believer in preserving live, Ryou. The only time I would purposely kill is if our life was in danger, or it was the only way to prevent something much worse.-

"Such as a worldwide dictatorship, leading to slavery and racial superiority?" Ryou asked, picking up a metal cylinder on his desk.

You pick this up very quickly.- I said, -And yes, that's the whole reason I was put into this blasted Ring… What is THAT?-

"A Slinky…" Ryou said absently, shuffling the thing back and forth. He laughed at my obvious interest and relinquished control. I was trying very hard not to be childish… but it was so much fun. I couldn't stop, it just… slinked back and forth, making the best sound… -You know… if you're that amused by it… you should try the Sony.-

"Hmm?" I asked, having been completely enthralled by the little toy. My voice, although the same tone as Ryou's, was a little deeper, more aggressive.

The Sony. Come on, let's go.- We reluctantly put down the Slinky, although I completely forgot about it when he pushed a little button and the TV started to work…

"Ryou, you are a terrible influence. I'm supposed to be this dark, noble spirit, waiting thousands of years for my chance to save the world… and here you have me playing Crash Bandicoot." I'd been saying words to that effect for the past three hours, although neither of us took me at all seriously.

Oh, don't be ridiculous,- he said. –You're learning about how our world works! Video games are, like, the biggest part of society.-

"Really?"

… Well maybe not the biggest, but they are a big influence, honest. And I can feel you picking around for information anyway.-

It was true. I was in a receptive host, in a completely new world, and I had to learn as much about it as possible. Add that to my naturally curious mind, and I couldn't quite help myself. "Sorry. Tell me if I go anywhere I shouldn't; I'll stop."

Oh, no problem. You're about to get turned into a frog, by the way.-

"What? No! Revolting offspring of a worm, may your soul be dumped by Ma'at into the abyss…" For the fifth time, the same wizard had turned my little orange… thing into a frog. "Aaaah… you do it!" I sunk back down, letting Ryou take over. It was only slightly humiliating to see him vault easily over the spell and squash the wizard. –Show off…-

"I've had more practice than you, that's all." Ryou calmly bounced off of a two-headed giant, spun a goat, smashed some boxes, and jumped into the exit portal.

Hmph.- If I was in control, I probably would have crossed my arms and glared, but as Ryou was still dominant, he cheerfully jumped into a second level. –Stupid impudent Hikari…- I muttered as he finished another level point-perfect.

"Silly prideful Yami," he whispered back, laughing at my indignation. Ah, yes, we'd get along fine.


	8. School

I own a deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

School

On the next morning, I had a rather terrible moment where I thought Ryou might forget about me, and leave me sitting on his bedside table. Much to my relief, he picked me up, fingering the old, faded pink ribbon that Maya had left with me. "What's this from? Pink satin is hardly a typical vengeful spirit sort of accessory…"

I laughed. –Maya gave that to me, many, many years ago. She's a grandmother now, perhaps…-

"Maya?"

-My last host,- I said, as he dished out a bowl of cornflakes. I was momentarily distracted by the refrigerator, and then continued. "A little girl, who found me and carried me out of that dreadful tomb into the city your father found me in.-

"That's sweet," Ryou said, picking up on how fond of her I'd become in such a short time.

-It is not. I am not sweet.- I grumbled. Ryou just laughed.

"I'll have to get a different cord eventually… or this is just going to disintegrate and I'll drop you somewhere," Ryou remarked as he got dressed. "I don't mind the pink, but…"

Outside, I was very proud of myself about the school bus. I was perfectly calm about a large, orange airplane without wings roaring up the road. Well… mostly perfectly calm anyway. Ryou kindly didn't laugh at me. –Are you sure this is a safe way to travel?- I asked, glancing leerily around. I could smell the highly explosive fuel they used to drive the things, and it made me nervous.

"It's fine, yami," he told me, smiling. "It's only a short drive, you know."

_He called me yami…_ I tried my best not to giggle. It was undignified.

Once we got to the inner city, I was amazed at the sheer number of people in the place. I'd thought the marketplace had been crowded, or the airport. This… this was worse. Buildings as tall as the pyramids lined the narrow-seeming streets, and the place was absolutely crawling, like an anthill that someone poked. –Why are there so many _people_ here?-

"This is Japan. And this isn't one of the most crowded towns either. You should see Tokyo…"

-How am I supposed to find the Pharaoh in this?- I asked myself, for the first time feeling a little doubtful.

"I told you, he goes to my school. He's even in our first class, you'll see…"

The public school was a fabulous idea. I'd learned to pick up Hieroglyphs as a necessity, but it had taken me a few hundred years to learn math on my own. The idea that every child was taught the basics of the world was new, but well-thought out. Thankfully, I could cheat, picking up the nuances of Japanese from Ryou's mind, and then completely ignoring the math he was learning. No living being ought to be so tortured… I could see no logical purpose for logarithms, and neither could Ryou when I asked him.

"To tell the truth, I don't really know what a logarithm is…" he told me, slightly embarrassed. "But that's Yugi, over in the corner there. With the hair."

How a mortal being got their hair into that position was completely beyond me. Underneath it, he seemed an uncommonly sweet, innocent boy, with eyes so big and cheerful that it made my teeth hurt. And he was short. Very, very short. He might come to our shoulder, if you counted the top of his hair. -I think the stone artists exaggerated,- I said. –The pharaoh was taller than nearly everyone in the murals…-

Ryou giggled, then blushed and looked down at his book when the teacher glared. –Want me to send him to the shadow realm for you?-

"No!" he said, wistfully. "Because then I'd get in trouble. In fact, don't do anything without checking with me first…"

-What? You think I have no self-control?- I said, cackling insanely for effect..

"Exactly."

-Spoilsport…-

After we finally finished with the hellishly boring math class, I was introduced to the wonders of dodge ball. –So, for an hour a day, you get to come play games?- I asked.

"Yes…" Ryou said dejectedly. "I'm no good at it really. I'd rather just keep going with my regular classes."

By virtue of being nearly invisible, Ryou was picked last for teams, and by virtue of being very short and invisible behind tall people, Yugi was just before us. –So, the idea of this is just to hit the people with the balls? That's boring.-

"We can't cross the line… and if we're hit, we're out."

-I could conjure a shield…-

"No, no magic in class, I'd get in trouble."

-You should learn to live dangerously,- I muttered, watching the balls get tossed out to various people. Mostly, people just didn't bother with Ryou, thinking him no threat at all, taking out the large, strong people. –They could at least toss a token throw this way,- I grumbled, feeling bored, left out, and vaguely insulted.

"Don't complain, the less I have to do the better…" Ryou said, hovering back near the wall.

-They don't even look at you!-

"That's fine…"

-No it isn't! Nobody ignores my hikari like that!- I snapped, taking over control. Slowly, I crept forward, picking up first one ball, then another. And then threw them. Hard. "My accuracy's off…" I muttered, as the first one caught one large bruiser in the shoulder, instead of breaking his nose like I intended.

-You aren't supposed to hit their heads…- Ryou groaned, shaking his mental head.

"Well, what's the fun in that?" I asked incredulously, whipping another ball to hit someone squarely in the chest. Actually, I was enjoying myself immensely. It might not be as satisfying as summoning a monster or two to squash them, or using a good old fashioned club, but there was something nice about the way they all just collapsed from the force of my throws.

-You're calling attention to yourself!- Ryou hissed at me.

"So?" I replied, gleefully knocking Yugi right off his feet.

-In all the gym classes I've ever been in, I haven't ever been able to throw like that. Slow down!-

"Is anyone here likely to think that you have a dark spirit inhabiting your body, and know how to exorcise me?"

-Well, no… probably not…-

"Then what are you worried about?"

-Yami…-

"Oh, fine…" I grumbled, making sure I missed the next shot and didn't dodge so quickly as before. Somewhat sullenly, I let Ryou take over again. –You need to have more fun, Hikari…-

"I'm sure you'll manage somehow," Ryou told me as he was hit by all three balls at once and relieved, went to go sit down.

Author's Note: To tell you the truth, I'd given up on this story. So a big thank you toAnei Aikouka for reviewing, I'll try and stick it out a while longer, eh?


	9. Biology

I own a deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

Biology

Yugi actually came up and talked to us after the gym class. Incredibly, he seemed to actually want to congratulate us on our performance. "That was incredible, Ryou," he said, his voice still a boy's. "I didn't know you could do that!"

Ryou laughed nervously. "Neither did I."

"Well, I hope we end up on the same team next time, eh?" the distractingly short boy said cheerfully as he wandered off to change back into his uniform.

-I have never met anyone so disgustingly sincere in my life.- I said to Ryou. –And I've lived a _very_ long time.-

Ryou giggled, then blushed a little when someone stared at him. "I think it's nice, myself. There're a lot of people with worse faults than being too happy."

-Can I send any of them to the Shadow Realm?-

"No. No sending random people to the Shadow Realm. No matter how much you think they might deserve it." Ryou said firmly. I sighed. It wasn't like I couldn't overpower him and do what I wished… but I just didn't want to make his life miserable. I really must be getting soft.

-You know,- I said casually on our way to Biology, -I could just do what I wanted. I _am_ the yami here, remember.-

"Oh, I know you _could_," Ryou replied, not sounding the least bit worried, "But I don't think you will. And if you did, there isn't a thing I could do to stop you, so I see no real point in worrying about it. Either you'll be nice and go with my requests, or you won't."

Well, that was a fatalistic way of looking at things. I needed to teach my Hikari to stand up for himself a little. Even a hopeless battle can have a surprising outcome.

Biology was completely taken up by sifting through Ryou's memories of science classes over the years. Nearly everything they were teaching was new knowledge to me. My last full host had been a shepherd, and just glasses had been a toy for the rich. Now, they'd gone and developed those tiny little lenses to look at teeny tiny little things, little animals living in the water, what a piece of onion or human skin looked like when it appeared as large as a dinner plate.

I could think of no real reason for wanting to see a bit of onion the size of a dinner plate.

I was interrupted in my search for biology background by Ryou's reaction to something the teacher said. –Dissection? Of a pig, did he say?-

"Yes. It's disgusting, but it's a required part of the course."

Now to me, cutting up an animal meant one thing. –So, do we get to eat it?-

"Wha- no! You can't eat it, it's soaked in formaldehyde."

-What's formaldehyde?-

"Poison."

-Well, why would you soak a perfectly good pig in poison?-

Ryou sighed. "So it doesn't rot."

-But what good does it do you if you can't eat it anyway?-

This time, Ryou just shook his mental head, giving up on getting me to understand it. "Just don't eat the thing when we do it okay?"

-Fine…-

We bumped into Yugi later on, and something very strange occurred to me with physical contact. –Ryou, he doesn't have the Pharaoh's puzzle.- I said, in the midst of him trading frantic apologies with Yugi.

"How can you tell?" he asked me silently.

-I spent the better part of the last five millennia sitting on the same sarcophagus as it. I can just tell.- I growled.

"Maybe he doesn't have it yet?" Ryou speculated as Yugi walked away. People tripped over him a lot, I believed. He was simply too short to be allowed, even in this country.

-Solomon Motou picked it up _years_ ago. He must have given it to him by now.-

"Maybe it was a coming of age present. Yugi just turned 16 a couple weeks ago, and you did say it was in a million little pieces. He probably hasn't put it together."

Logic. It had evolved a ways since I was last out and about. –I suppose that's possible, yes,- I said shortly, not wanting to admit that Ryou had thought of the solution I couldn't. He knew it anyway, of course, but was kind enough not to rub my face in it.

To cheer me up, Ryou took me to a video store, and borrowed a copy of Star Wars. The third one, because he said it was the best. I just dipped unobtrusively into his mind to figure out what a movie, Jedi, Sith, trilogy, space ship, DVD, hyperspace, droids, and a few other images that appeared were.

By the time I was done puzzling this out, we were home, and he plugged it into his DVD player. Needless to say, I was hooked. I kept sifting for background information throughout the movie, but eventually figured out what was going on. –I wonder if I could do that lightning thing…- I mused.

"Not if it leaves me looking like the Senator," Ryou said empathically.

-I'd be careful.-

"Good. I figured you would," Ryou said.

As much as I admired the newly created Sith's powers and emotional drive, I actually found myself sympathizing with the little green thing. Trying to prevent the rise of a Dictatorship, and in the end, having to go into hiding until the time was right. Although, I could at least speak forwards.

At the end of the movie, I asked Ryou, somewhat surprised, -That isn't the end, is it? I don't think much of your storytellers in that case…-

He laughed. "No, there's another three stories, set twenty or so years into the future. It really does come out alright in the end…"

Author's Note: I'm sorry for the random Star Wars insert. I like my daily dose of Jedi…


	10. Puzzle

I own a deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

Puzzle

The next week, Yugi brought the puzzle to school. In a box. In many, many little pieces. "See? I told you." Ryou said cheerfully.

-Hah. Some Pharaoh's reincarnation he is. He should have put it together by now.-

"Well, to be quite fair, he has started," Ryou said, peering over the little boy's shoulder into the box. There were two corners, and the eye was nearly complete… but it looked like he'd never get it done.

-Ryou…- Sudden inspiration had struck me. –Go take a piece.-

"What? Why?"

-So he can't finish it. If I destroy even one piece, it'll never be completed.-

"I… I don't know if I can do that," Ryou said worriedly. "Whenever I try to do something bad, people notice like I'm lit up with a spotlight."

I grumbled slightly at that. –Aren't you supposed to be _my_ reincarnation?- I asked pointedly.

"I think I might be your reincarnation the way you would have been if you weren't a thief…"

-Fine. Then let's just go throw the box across the room and not worry about stealth.-

"Yami!" Ryou said, sounding more snappish than I'd ever heard him. "That's not very nice."

I blinked mentally. –Nice? Since when have I ever been nice?-

"I think you could be… but that's not even the point. _I_ don't go around being a bully, people would look oddly if I did."

I picked up on the undercurrent there. –Do people bother you, Ryou?-

"No!" he replied quickly. "No, I'm just fine. And you wouldn't be allowed to do anything about it if they did."

-Hikari,- I sighed, -There's something you'd better learn about me. I'm a very protective sort of spirit. Live with it.-

"You're still not allowed to go throw his box across the room."

A few minutes later, when a rather violent, irritating blonde did toss the box, Ryou was a bit testy. "Yami, I told you not to do that!"

-_I_ didn't,- I said. -As you never left your chair.- And we weren't likely to any time soon, I discovered. Ryou was holding us down with an iron will until he was done talking.

"You made him do it!"

-Did not.-

"I can tell when you're lying to me, Bakura," he stated, sounding somewhat hurt.

-I didn't _really_ make him do it. I barely had to prod him in the right direction.- I hated it when he sounded hurt. Absolutely hated it. A spirit like me shouldn't have guilty feelings. It's just wrong.

And by that point, nearly everyone on that half of the room had gotten up to help with the pieces, and I'd missed my chance. –You know, Ryou, that was probably the least violent chance I'll ever have to destroy that Puzzle.-

"I don't want you hurting anyone to do it."

-I wouldn't have hurt him! That's my point!-

Then Ryou just withdrew from me, acting all misunderstood and hurt. I got a vague thought of how it would have hurt him emotionally. Emotionally. Ridiculous. Although… once I thought about it, having Ryou knock the pieces over would probably ruin his image of being sweet and trustworthy. And, perhaps, it would be more useful to have the whole puzzle to myself. Easier to destroy the items if I had them all.

I kept hoping Ryou would talk to me again, but it wasn't until the end of the day that I realized he was waiting for an apology. An apology! From me! He must be mad…

By ten that evening, I was going a little mad. It's very disconcerting to have your hikari pretend you don't exist. Like standing directly in front of someone, and just have them keep on doing whatever they were doing. Finally, just before he fell asleep, I grudgingly said, -Fine. Sorry.-

"Thank you, Yami…" he mumbled before drifting off to sleep. I tried not to be so cheerful that he was speaking to me again.

The next morning at school, Yugi was there looking very proud of himself. He came bounding right over, saying excitedly, "Ryou! Look at this!" And he very innocently shoved the completed Millennium Puzzle right in our face.

Ryou gently squashed me while he carried on a normal conversation with Yugi. "Wow. Wasn't that the thing in the box yesterday?"

"Yeah!" he said happily. "I just started working on it when I got home, and it all kind of fell into place. It was kind of creepy actually, like I'd done it before or something."

"That's odd," Ryou said. "Well, it's a neat thing now. What is it?"

"I have no idea," Yugi said brightly. I swear, that boy must not have any other emotion than happy. "Grandpa bought it back from Egypt years ago, and decided that I should try to put it together."

"Well, congratulations on your success then," Ryou said politely, before walking away as quickly as could be considered normal. "Would you calm down a little? You're being very distracting."

-You didn't have to be quite so overbearing, you know,- I grumbled. –I wasn't about to kill him in the middle of the school.-

"You were drooling."

-I was not. I have no salivary gland inside our head.-

He blinked. "You've been reading my science textbooks, haven't you?"

-Maybe…-

By the end of the day, he was getting very irritated by me. "Would you _please_ stop trying to think of ways to steal that thing? They're all so violent…"

-Not all of them…-

"Well, no," Ryou said, "But they're so constant! Can't you give it a rest?"

-The sooner I do this, the less likely that the Pharaoh wakes up. And if he's still sleeping, it'll make life much, much easier for everyone involved.-

"You… you aren't going to hurt him, are you?"

-Why are you such a pacifist?- I asked, sighing. –I've told you over and over. If I can possibly avoid hurting him, I will. My quarrel is with the Pharaoh, not Yugi.-

"So, do you know how to find the rest of the items, then?"

The change of topic threw me a bit off. -I… I suppose. I can feel them when they're close, of course.-

"Are any of them close? Or do you know where any of them are?"

-Shadi is in possession of the Key, and the Scales, I believe. The Ishtar family has always been guardians of the Necklace and Rod… that means a trip to Egypt is in your future.-

"I'll stock up on sunscreen."

-You do that. The Eye, on the other hand… Was last seen in the possession of a Maximillian Pegasus.-

"Pegasus? The inventor of Duel Monsters?"

-Well, I wouldn't go as far as saying the inventor, they've been around far longer than I have.-

"That's beside the point," he said. "If he's got the Eye, I have no idea how you're going to get it. He's one of the richest men on the face of the earth! The security on his house is unsurpassed! Not to mention that it's on his own private island. Nobody goes there except his own most trusted people."

-Then we'll just have to find a way. At least he's easy to find, right?-

Ryou didn't seem to share my optimism. Strange.

Author's Note: For those of you who don't know, I know very little about the actual timeline here. I'm twisting it to my own ideas. Consider yourself warned.


	11. Island

I own a deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

Island

I have to admit, when Pegasus announced his dueling tournament, I was maybe a little smug. -You see? I told you there'd be a way.-

"You're going to be absolutely insufferable about this, aren't you?" Ryou sighed.

-I think I deserve a little gloating time…-

When the news story continued to say that only the top duelists would be invited, it was Ryou's turn. "Not as easy as you thought?"

-Oh, come on. I've been dueling longer than anyone in this country. Of course I'm qualified.-

"Maybe you're qualified… but you aren't legally here. You aren't a citizen of… well, anywhere, you haven't won any public duels in Pegasus' lifetime, or in the written history of the world, for that matter. You need an _invitation_, for which you need notoriety, not just talent."

-I was born in Egypt…- I muttered sullenly. -I'm from somewhere…-

Ryou shook his head. "No. You're from Egypt when it was still the Upper and Lower Kingdoms. That country hasn't been recognized for a millennium or more."

-So I'm old enough to have outlived my country of origin. So what?-

"So…" Ryou said, gesturing at the TV where they were showing a picture of star chips, "I'm afraid there's no way we're getting invited to this tournament. Those gloves and chips are already on their way to participants."

-We'll get there.-

"Yami, we can't. No invitation, no passage to the island."

-Watch me.-

It was pathetically easy to slip on board the private liner a week later. We just gently pushed the guards' minds aside, and they didn't even notice us climbing the gangplank. By the time the first duelists had arrived, we were well settled in a lifeboat. "They're going to catch us, Yami…"

-No they won't. Now that we're on the boat, all we have to do is wait until we've disembarked. We obviously couldn't have gotten on board without those shiny little star chips, so no one will even bother us. I could probably make some out of Shadow Magic, if we get asked.-

Ryou wasn't completely comfortable with all this sneaking around and not quite legal-ness. However, he did seem to get that it was the only easy chance I'd have to get this blasted Eye, and so swallowed most of his objections.

When we noticed some of Yugi's friends scramble out of a packing crate, I wasn't sure whether Ryou was horrified that someone had stowed away, or elated that he wasn't the only stowaway. Only that girl, Tea, actually saw us, and we were gone before she was sure. –We don't actually need them knowing we're here yet. Because they'll want to talk, and that'll call attention to us. Why deal with authority if we don't have to? Besides, then you won't have to lie.-

The thought of not having to lie decided Ryou against making contact, and Tea eventually decided that she must have seen someone that looked like Ryou. Of course, this was nearly impossible, as there were very few people with that much soft white hair, and none with quite the same delicately chiseled features.

"You think I have delicately chiseled features?" Ryou asked me, giggling slightly.

-Well, of course. You got it from me.-

Getting off the ship was even easier, we just moved into the middle of the last group of duelists and melted into the trees once we were on shore. -We'll have to find someone who wins all ten chips,-

"And _follow_ them in?" Ryou asked sweetly.

-I suppose so.- I was just going to borrow some star chips, but Ryou wasn't having any of me stealing from innocent people.

"Couldn't you just make some out of Shadow Magic?"

-Wouldn't fool Pegasus,- I said. –Anyone with a Millennium Item can sense Shadow Magic. And he's had his long enough to know what it is, too. Being caught out that early isn't a good idea. It'd probably be easiest to get him after he's had a duel, he'll be tired and distracted.-

"You aren't going to…"

-Hurt him? I'll try not to, you know that. It all depends on whether he'll give me the eye peacefully or not. Because I'm taking it either way.-

I felt a brief moment of nausea from Ryou. "I really hope he just gives it to you…"

The first of the duels I watched gave me a bit of a shock, before Ryou explained to me what a hologram was. -Oh, good. So, I don't have to worry about the whole island being full of Shadow monsters?-

"No. You don't. I do hope Joey does well… That Rex character's bad news. He almost got disqualified for bad conduct in his last tournament, I believe. It was all over the news."

-How did someone like Wheeler get invited anyway?- I grumbled. –He's absolutely useless…-

"Yugi gave him a star chip, I believe," Ryou said, checking the much shorter boy's wrist. "Yes, he's only got one, see?"

-Why would he waste that on _him_?- I asked, slightly bewildered. –I thought they didn't even like each other.-

Ryou sighed. "Something you have to learn about Yugi is that he forgives anything that knows how to breathe. And I believe that Joey helped him in a duel with Seto Kaiba or something like that."

-And gave him some cards, I see…- Because I just couldn't accept that Wheeler could find a Time Wizard on his own. It just wasn't possible.

"Would you look at that," Ryou said, amusedly. "He's won his first duel."

-Luck.-

"Yes… but who cares, in the long run. A win is a win, right?"

-So he now has two star chips. Who'd have thought?-

We followed the group around, steadily getting hungrier and hungrier. –Ryou, just let me go grab that chocolate bar.-

"No. It's not ours."

-I'm _hungry_!-

"We just ate this morning."

-We ate two biscuits left after the breakfast buffet. You wouldn't let me steal food on the ship either, I seem to recall.-

"We weren't even supposed to be on the ship."

-This is my point! Why not keep stretching the rules?-

"Yami, you're not stealing anybody's food."

-_Ryou…_-

"No."

He was getting far too strong for his own good. If I wanted, I could still overpower him, but it'd cause an undue amount of pain. He was as hungry as I was though, so he wandered over towards the various campfires, looking for anyone who'd feed us out of charity.

The screams of sheer terror from the first fire sent Ryou skittering back into the forest. "What was their problem? I wasn't trying to hurt them!"

-A mysterious figure with pale skin, white hair, a white sweater, and dark, large eyes appearing out of the gloom? To a group of girls, you look rather ghost-like.-

We didn't have any better luck at the next one either, where some empty cans and a rather large stick were thrown heavily in our direction. And at the next one, they were very hospitable, until I made Ryou leave. "What? They would have fed us."

-They thought you were very pretty, Ryou.-

"So? That's a compliment."

I sighed at just how innocent my little hikari could be. -A group of boys, with a very large, dominating kind of a leader, thinks you're pretty. Just stay away from them, alright?-

I was almost ready to just find a dark tree and give up on food for the night after that. It just wasn't worth the risk in my pretty hikari's body to go from group to group… And then we heard an all too familiar yell. "That was Joey!"

-He sounded happy too. I think we ought to go see what's going on. Yugi's got enough charity to feed us, without any consequences.-

When we found them clustered around the fire, the sheer amount of food coming out of the woman's bag made Ryou swallow hungrily. He was too dignified to drool. Putting on his best pitiful, adorable face, he crept into the campsite, terrifying the hell out of everyone there until they saw his face.

I was happy enough about the food that I didn't even pay attention to anything else until I heard the conversation turn to duel monsters. Almost without my thinking about it, a part of my mind started to tick, very aware of the puzzle lying innocently on Yugi's chest.

The other woman, Mai something, had gone off for a walk for some reason. I wasn't paying attention. Only Yugi was important right now. He was showing off his favorite card, that blasted Dark Magician. Not as useful as he thought, but in the hands of a pharaoh, very dangerous. Eager to play along, Joey shuffled through his slightly beaten-up deck, pulling out his Flame Swordsman. I wasn't even aware that Tea or Tristan even had cards, but they both produced one. –Have you ever seen a more useless card?- I asked Ryou as we all looked at Cyber Commander.

"Um… not really, no."

Yugi, being Yugi, acted like it was something sacred, of course, while everyone else tried not to laugh. Tea actually managed to find a weaker card, but at least it had a power. And then someone asked us what Ryou's favorite card was, and my brain clicked into place.

Ryou cheerfully pulled out Change of Heart, noting to me that he enjoyed the duality of it, the thought that light and dark could exist as one person. I tried not to act too flattered by his choice, and then smoothly took over, asking Ryou to please trust me.

By the time he'd started to think there might be something wrong, I was in full control, asking Yugi if he wanted to have a duel.


	12. Duel

I own a deck of dueling cards. Not Yu-Gi-Oh itself.

Duel

"Not for Star Chips or anything," I said, shuffling our deck. "Just a little friendly game."

"Hey, that sounds like fun!" Yugi said. I sighed. If I'd offered to go swimming in shark-infested waters with him, he'd probably say it sounded fun. "Let's start!"

I relaxed just a little, thinking my plan would actually go off easily, but before I could make a move, Tea blurted out, "Hey! Why don't we all put our favorite cards in your Deck, Yugi? Then it'll be like we're all dueling with you!"

_No! No, you idiots, don't get involved now…_But it was not to be. The others all jumped on the idea, proffering their cards. My only hope now was that they hadn't actually picked their true soul cards as their favorites. Aside from being stupid, they hadn't done anything wrong, certainly not enough to deserve being involved in a Shadow Duel.

-Yami?- Ryou's voice came from deep in our soul. –What's going on? You aren't actually planning on sending them to the Shadow Realm, are you?-

"I wasn't…" I grumbled. "However, it appears that they have different plans. Yes, I'll try and keep them out of trouble. Now stop bothering me, it's been a rather long time since I've done this."

"You're sure you don't mind dueling all on your own, Bakura?" Tea asked, looking up at me. Odd, how they wouldn't call Ryou by his first name.

"Oh, I'll be quite fine, don't worry." _Just stay out of the way and don't make this any more difficult than it has to be._ "Although before we start, I have something I have to show to all of you." I closed my eyes and breathed out, concentrating on the Shadow Magic hovering just on the other side of this world. It took less effort than it had since I was in my own body, and from the startled gasps, I could tell it looked as impressive as I'd hoped.

Naturally, none of Yugi's three cheerleaders left his side, although I'd have wished they had. Interestingly, the Pharaoh's incarnation seemed to recognize Shadow Magic, although not as well as he should. From his mind, I caught an image of Pegasus on a TV screen, and Solomon being pulled into the Shadow Realm. _Interesting_. Now I knew why Pegasus had thrown a tournament; much the same reason I was attending it.

As I pulled Yugi and myself into the Shadow Realm, I felt first Joey, then Tea and Tristan following us. _Idiots._ Well, it couldn't be helped now. "Well, Yugi? Before we start, I have a few rules you ought to know about." My voice was lower now, more dangerous and experienced. "This is called a Shadow Duel. If you win, you and your friends are transported back into the real world without losing anything. If I win, however, I'll be claiming your Puzzle."

Even though I hadn't said anything about stealing souls, that's naturally where his mind went. He believed the Shadow Realm was a place where one's soul was trapped, nothing else, and so believed they'd all be stuck here for eternity. I seriously doubted I'd be able to correct him if I tried, as Pharaohs don't listen to reason very well. So I didn't.

When we drew our cards, I looked at my hand with some trepidation. "Ryou, please tell me you have some powerful cards somewhere in your deck."

-I don't deal in raw power, Yami…- Ryou said. –But it'll be a hard deck to beat anyway.-

"I know. I was just hoping…" No powerful ghosts, no eternal curses… although all sorts of lovely little cards with nasty effects easily implemented were there. I placed a Shadow Jar and a Trap card just in case on the field, and bowed mockingly to Yugi. "Your turn, then."

To give him credit, he set his little jaw and set down his first card. Flame Swordsman. Which of course was Joey Wheeler. Yugi peered down at him with amazement, probably because for the first time in his life he was larger than someone. Joey was not amused at first. Then, he decided it was just an amusing dream, and went charging into battle, getting tripped up and swallowed by my Jar. "Joey?" Yugi asked, sounding rather panicked.

Ryou was asking me what had happened to him, so I obliged both of them. "He's been sent to the Card Graveyard, of course. I wouldn't leave him there long, if I were you. It's not healthy."

I ignored further demands for information, concentrating on just playing out my turn. I wasn't so cruel as to attack his life points out of hand. I'd promised to avoid injuring him, in any case.

With the luck that only someone using Shadow Magic could call up, Yugi played Monster Reborn the next turn, as well as Cyber Commander. A rather shaken looking Flame Swordsman appeared, and started to explain things to the miniature Tristan. Although I did resent being referred to as an evil psycho, it speeded things up to have Yugi concentrating on the duel.

"Little Hikari, where did you get all these cards?" I asked Ryou as I drew a Man-Eater Bug. "It must have taken you years to amass a deck so full of creatures such as this."

-I never liked most of the powerful monsters. Too easy to counter, and I wasn't really good at it anyway. I was always so much better at the traps and such.-

"No kidding…" I'd just found a Just Desserts card, one that would play nicely against Yugi's powers at the moment. Ah, the joys of having an opponent with an undue amount of monsters at his disposal. To Yugi, I cautioned, "I'd watch your step. You don't have two Monster Reborn cards in that deck, and you wouldn't want any more of your friends ending up in the Graveyard."

Honestly, that was meant as a real, generous warning. I didn't want any more of his people in that place than necessary. Of course, he took it as a threat, but as long as he got the right idea, it would do.

He summoned up a Feral Imp next, for which I breathed a sigh of relief. At least he wouldn't be sending his friends into battle immediately. However, the chance was too good to waste, and I activated Just Desserts when he launched an attack.

I thought Ryou would actually take over for a moment. He was absolutely furious that I was causing Yugi that amount of pain. –You promised you wouldn't hurt him!-

"I promised I'd try!" I snarled at him. "It's a duel. A Shadow Duel. The pain doesn't last for long, he's easily resilient enough to stand it, and now I should be able to finish this quickly. Now, leave me _alone!"_ Ryou was shocked and a little hurt at my tone, withdrawing into a corner of the Ring. I wasn't about to let myself think about how harshly I'd spoken. I had a Duel to win. "Your move." I said, trying not to let sympathy for him creep into my voice.

Losing three quarters of his life points and his Feral Imp in one turn had rattled him. I could see him wavering with indecision when he drew what had to be his Dark Magician. It's raw power would be able to obliterate anything I placed on the field, but he didn't want to risk summoning himself and not having control over the duel anymore. Eventually, he appeared to decide against it and placed Tea face down. This did no good in disguising her identity of course, as she crawled out from under her card and asked what was going on. "Oh, don't bother," I said, laughing a little as the two boys tried to jump in front of her. "I can see her."

Ryou had another Shadow Jar in his deck, which I cheerfully set down on the field. All I needed was another 500 life points. The problem would be finding a monster strong enough to do that kind of damage with a Flame Swordsman on the field. I doubted Ryou had many monsters that powerful in his deck. And he was snubbing me again, so I couldn't ask him. It was both irritating and sort of exhilarating to duel with their modern restrictions, limiting what monsters and spells I could summon, but refining the games into an art, almost.

Having missed the first Shadow Jar, Tristan ran, guns blazing into battle. "Another friend gone to the Graveyard, Yugi. You should take more care of them." Again, I meant it in a purely honest way… but of course he couldn't believe I was trying to be sympathetic, or helpful.

Screwing up his little face, he pulled his Dark Magician out of his hand and summoned it. He made a disturbingly cuddly little Magician, actually. I could even feel Ryou looking at him like he would at a particularly adorable teddy bear. And when I looked up at what was still dueling me, I saw the Pharaoh. The one I'd been chasing for millennia.

He was shorter than me, naturally, but carried himself in a way that bespoke height and power. He wasn't the least bit foggy or out of focus, but clearly shaped, solid. I hadn't expected him to be this powerful this early on. Being in a duel suited him; he held the cards with an ease like I'd hold a dagger, and he barely seemed to notice the Shadow Realm's energy pulsing around us. Interestingly, that seemed the only part of him that was what I'd expected.

He had a regal bearing, of course, but I believed that was more from something unconscious than a true attitude. He spoke to me, and to the various people on our stage as if we were equals, not subordinates to a demigod. And when they demanded to know who he was, I saw him hesitate. He let Yugi answer for him, which wasn't a very enlightening identification unless you knew what was going on. –He doesn't know.- Ryou whispered, drawn out of his shunning by his interest. –He doesn't know who he is.-

"I think you're right, Hikari," I said, almost shaken. I'd always expected to fight someone evil, to destroy him so the world could continue in freedom. I didn't ever think I'd have to deal with a near-invalid. It would make my life a lot easier if he didn't remember his true powers, but something just didn't feel right, deep down. I repressed both it and Ryou, concentrating on the duel at hand. "Well then. Since you find yourself able to continue, I'll just take my turn."

Nothing useful. Absolutely nothing except for a few very sad little monsters, without even an effect. I could count on Yugi-oh to not want to sacrifice his friends, however, so they wouldn't likely attack it this turn. "Ryou, do you have _anything_ powerful in this deck? I only need a small hit…"

-Nothing that can withstand that Dark Magician,- Ryou said, giving up on ignoring me. –I'm sorry. I never expected to be in a duel where the monsters have a will of their own and block attacks for each other.-

I growled. There had to be something. There was always something… On the other side of the field, Tea was taking Tristan's loss very hard, and burst into tears without warning. And since this was the Shadow Realm, of course, she activated her very own effect. My opponent seemed to have no problem remembering the rules of dueling, and hurriedly called up Monster Reborn, and summoned back his mostly useless Cyber Commander.

Apparently, their own fears had created a Reaper in the graveyard, not that I was about to tell them it had all been in their minds. None of them were willing to risk another of them being sent to the graveyard, and so left my little monster in peace. I concentrated every possible scrap of my energies on the deck, hoping for anything that could let me win the duel without any more delay.

When I saw what I'd drawn, I laughed. _Of course._ I grinned rather savagely across the field at Yugi-oh, delicately placing Change of Heart on the field. It was such a simple, easy plan. If I couldn't beat Dark Magician, I'd just borrow it instead.

What I didn't expect was Ryou to go slightly hysterical at the thought of forcing Yugi to attack a friend. When Change of Heart appeared on the field, it was my delicate little Hikari standing there, getting himself involved. He turned to look at me just briefly, his face apologizing for what he was about to do. "No! No, you fool, don't!" I barked, willing him to just let me finish the duel.

Without a word, he occupied the Lady of Faith I'd placed earlier, and looking more determined and brave than I'd ever seen him, told Yugi to attack. "Ryou, don't do this, you don't know what you're doing…" I begged him silently. I could feel his fury radiating off him.

-I don't? I know you were willing to do it to one of them.- he said harshly, snapping at Yugi again to attack.

"Ryou…" I started to say, and then realized that the Pharaoh wasn't quite as forgetful as I'd thought. Yugi's staff started to blaze, and I felt myself being pulled by a Shadow power much stronger than my own, torn from my body and replaced with Ryou. There was a brilliant flash of dark light, a rather horrendous amount of pain, and then nothing.


End file.
